Kelsey Grammer’s Lifetime Of Tragedy

Kelsey Grammer has experienced a lifetime of tragedy, and it’s because of these heartbreaking tragedies that he says he has surrendered his life to God. Faith It reported that the 90s sitcom star enjoyed a spiritual youth, but a series of unfortunate events made it almost impossible for him to keep his faith at such a young age.

When Kelsey was just 12-years-old, he lost his 63-year-old grandfather to cancer. Then just two years later his father was shot and killed in a home invasion. Losing the two most important men in his life within such a short period of time was understandably very difficult for the 14-year-old to handle.

Then Kelsey’s sister Karen was raped and murdered in 1975. Just five years later two of his half-brothers died in a diving accident. The ongoing heartbreak challenged Kelsey’s will to live, and he admitted that at one point, “I probably lost it. There was a time when I abandoned the effort to find a reason to be alive.”

Kelsey turned to alcohol during the filming of Cheers to try to numb the pain of his past. This turned out to be a destructive choice, and one that has plagued him for most of his adult life.

“I was running away from the feelings that weren’t, you know, as comfortable as I wanted them to do be, and maybe I do have a self-destructive part of me.”

The alcohol abuse only became worse, even though he spent time in and out of rehab. When the filming of Cheers came to an end, his new escape became cocaine. Then, drunk driving charges landed Kelsey in jail.

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It was at this point in his life that Kelsey made the conscious and committed effort to get clean and sober for good. At around the same time, he says he surrendered his life and everything that was out of his human control to God.

“I just put that pain where it is: in the past. But it’s a pain that you can always stumble into again: it’s with you 24/7, especially in the case of tragic death, and there have been a few of those. It’s just part of life. Maybe I learned a little earlier than most, but it’s just the way it goes.”

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But, it hasn’t all been plain sailing since that time for Kelsey Grammer. After three failed marriages, Kelsey found love again in his fourth wife, British former-flight-attendant Kayte Walsh. But the couple endured several heartbreaking miscarriages, and Kelsey suffered a heart attack in 2008.

“Kayte and I had a couple of miscarriages before we had our first child. That was devastating. These things are hard. But when it’s good, it’s magnificent.”